The Facebook Effect: Are Judgments Influenced By the Knowledge That Others Are Also Evaluating?

Claire Tsai, University of Toronto, CanadaMin Zhao, University of Toronto, CanadaDilip Soman, University of Toronto, Canada

Companies are increasingly relying on virtual social networks to collect data. We show that the knowledge that virtual others are also evaluating the same items can dampen evaluations in various domains, due to the decreased confidence in (the correctness of) judgments and increased need to conform to (perceived) consensus.